PCPer File Copy Test

Our custom PCPer-FC test does some fairly simple file creation and copy routines in order to test the storage system for speed. The script creates a set of files of varying sizes, times the creation process, then copies the same files to another partition on the same hard drive and times the copy process as well. There are four file patterns that we used to try and find any strong or weak points in the hardware: 10 files @ 1000 MB each, 100 files @ 100 MB each, 500 files @ 10 MB each and 1000 files at 1 MB each.

The RE took a chunk out of the Red, which had previously owned this test in all but the VelociRaptor results.

The RE has a seek (and therefore noise) signature matching that of the WD RE4 and Black drives. It's not horribly loud, but you can certainly tell when it's busy. The RE handily beat out all other drives save the VelociRaptor, which it came surprisingly close to. Our copy test uses both the start *and* the middle of the platters, so the increase in density is not all that's needed to do well in this test. The drive must also have good seek performance, which the RE clearly does here.